


The Aurum Eye

by Shadaras



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Magic, Magical Artifacts, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25712362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/pseuds/Shadaras
Summary: The Aureate Isles ask all who seek to join the royal family in marriage to complete a series of tests. The first, and most important, is to pass under the gaze of the Aurum Eye.Now Queen Iridia must be married, and her aunt Elysa wields the Aurum Eye in search of worthy suitors.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Female Character, Suspicious Battle-Hardened Noblewoman & Her Niece the New Queen & Queen's Suitors
Comments: 8
Kudos: 7
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Ocean Witch, Battleship 2020 - Red Team





	The Aurum Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashling/gifts).



Elysa fixed the Great Hall with her stare, pinning each and every contender for her niece’s hand with a gaze trained by long years commanding the queendom’s legions. In comparison to new recruits, the suitors were nothing; she suspected some had never even been in such a crowd before. “You understand,” she said, very precisely, “that you are here to be judged, and may be found wanting?”

They should. It had been on all the posters, shouted by all the criers as they’d sailed through the Aureate Isles over the last season to call all those who thought they had what it took to be Royal Consort to the Palace Trials. Still, many of the young faces looking up at her showed nerves, and a few flinched back. Elysa sighed internally; it was always a toss-up if those who flinched would be winnowed out in the first round or survive through to the final stage.

“Our founders knew mortal hearts could be too easily swayed,” she continued, falling into the rote story every child knew. Yet it took on special meaning here and now, when made manifest and not simply mythologized into a long-ago legend. “So they left us the Aurum Eye, that the gods may see into our deepest selves and guide our bloodlines towards souls that could help us prosper.”

She pulled the veil off the Eye and lifted it reverently into the air. “This is only the first test,” she said, knowing they were enraptured by the warm light cascading over her fingers and swirling through her skin. “There will be others. Are you ready?”

A chorus of assurance filled the hall, a true wall of noise, and Elysa savored it. Then she set the Aurum Eye upon her forehead and opened herself to its will, as she had for her sister so many years ago.

It was said that if the Eye found its user unworthy, it would devour them. Generations ago, they’d learnt that the women of royal blood were the most likely to succeed; thus, when it came time for her older sister to marry, and Elysa had been the only woman left, she had donned the Eye at the tender age of sixteen. People whispered that everything else about her—her cutting insight, her single-minded focus, her stubborn refusal to wed or rule herself—came from that experience.

Elysa didn’t think they were wrong; she just thought they blamed the wrong thing. It wasn’t that she _couldn’t_ rule; it was that the Aurum Eye showed her the flaws of her own heart first, and she knew she was too cruel to sit the throne. No, let her be the Queen’s strong arm, and let their kindness lead the Aurate Isles to glory.

She opened her eyes and _saw_.

The world was golden through the Eye’s power, and Elysa let the blood on her hands run off her without flinching. She knew herself, and _she_ wasn’t the one the Eye had to scrutinize now.

Slowly, she walked through the crowd. The women and men who had crowded so closely together parted around her as she moved. It felt like she was floating, as she let the Eye guide her gaze. Occasionally she settled in front of someone, to see if they could meet her eyes—she knew they blazed like sunlight, and reflected one’s heart back.

Those few who could, she draped with laurels and gestured for servants to guide deeper into the palace. They would be tested on their knowledge of state next, to see what guidance they would give in times of drought or famine or plague, or more ordinary matters like petty theft or slighted nobles entering a feud. But that was not her domain: Elysa only cared about this hall and finding those suitable suitors whose hearts may be stained but shone nonetheless with strength and love.

When at last she returned to the dais to remove the Aurum Eye, the palace guard moved in to shepherd the rest—over a hundred souls—out of the palace.

Elysa removed the Aurum Eye and almost fell, shaking with all the energy it had taken from her. Nobody ever mentioned the cost of power, when they talked of the Eye; they only cared about what it could do.

Slender gloved hands gripped her elbow, steadying her, and Elysa turned to smile at her niece. Queen Iridia returned the smile and took the Eye from her, wrapping it neatly in ceremonial gold cloth. “So tell me,” Iridia said, voice light, “what are they like?”

Elysa shook her head ruefully as she sank to the ground, still dizzy. “Were you watching?”

“I’m banned from all the other rooms,” Iridia grumbled, and Elysa heard Katrine in her voice with a pang. She still missed her sister. “I think I counted two dozen who you accepted?”

“I didn’t accept anyone.” Elysa sighed and rubbed her forehead. She needed food and rest, not to be interrogated by a teenager. “The Eye accepted twenty-one souls as potentially worthy.”

Iridia sat down next to her and handed her a pair of tangerines. “Did _you_ like any of them?”

Elysa carefully slit the tangerine’s skin with one sharp fingernail as she thought about it. She’d tried not to care about any contenders; playing favorites led to disappointment, more often than not. But even so, a few had stood out. She bit into the sweet-sharp tang of the fruit, and then said, “I will not tell you their names, nor what they look like.”

Iridia immediately clung to her arm. “But?”

“But yes, there were a few I liked the look of.” Elysa smiled at her niece, remembering when she’d been so young. Besides, it would be best if Iridia stayed here and didn’t hassle the other advisors as they tested the candidates. So she ate another slice of tangerine, took a breath, and began to tell Iridia about hearts filled with the soft joy of gardens, and long weeks sailing the cloud-roads, and protecting friends and family from harm.

She wasn’t on the advisory council, but she could at least give her niece this, and prime her to look for kindness in her suitor’s hearts.


End file.
